Importance of Plankton to Fish Community

Abstract

Zooplankton is the source of life for most of aquatic organisms especially in their larval stages. Its importance come from that most fishes depend on it as a source of life after absorbance of the yolk sac. Moreover, the greatest aquatic creatures like many species of whales are filter feeders where the planktonic organisms form the main bulk of their food. The importance of zooplankton as a main source of nutrition of marine fish larvae has been long professed. Many scientists attributed the ability of a fish population to outdistance through the larval period without vast mortality as one of the primary factors determining the size of the resulting year class and hypothesized that competition for food during the larval time might be a major factor affecting survival and subsequent year class strength.